Some early precipitation and a change of venue couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm for the City of Estevan’s Celebrate the True North pre-Canada Day festivities on Friday.
The event was scheduled to have outdoor family activities at 3 p.m. and an evening flag-raising ceremony at Centennial Park, a cabaret at the Power Dodge Curling Centre and fireworks after dusk.
But a forecast for rain forced the city to move the family activities to Affinity Place, and to relocate food trucks from the Estevan Leisure Centre’s parking lot to the leisure centre’s covered forecourt.
The decision paid off less than an hour after the activities started, when a thunderstorm rolled through the southeast.
“I was keeping an eye on it for sure, and … at 2 o’clock, made the decision to move everything in there … and there was just enough time to get everyone mobilized into Affinity, and all the food trucks underneath the forecourt,” said Rod March, the manager of parks and facilities for the City of Estevan.
With the exception of the weather, March thought the event went very well.
“It maybe forced the numbers down a bit, because people weren’t sure (what was happening),” said March. “But overall, it looked like we had quite a few people coming through the building. People seemed to enjoy everything that was going on.”
The activities at Affinity Place included games, bumper cars, bouncy structures, face-paining, children’s entertainment by Funtazm, and tours of vehicles supplied by the Estevan Police Service and the Estevan Fire Rescue Service.
The flag-raising ceremony also had to be moved to Affinity. Mayor Roy Ludwig spoke at the event, and those in attendance sang O Canada.
Then the score clock at the centre of Affinity Place was raised from the arena floor to the roof, with an image of a Canadian flag on the video panels, making it a symbolic flag-raising.
A flag pole had been installed at Centennial Park for the ceremony.
Food truck vendors were pleased with the event, March said.
“I’m getting more and more interest from different vendors, and we’re trying to promote local vendors. We really look forward to giving them the opportunity to sell their products, so we had some new guys and new people come in there this year that seemed to be pretty successful.”
The big addition for this year was the fireworks display, which started just after 10 p.m. A large crowd gathered in central Estevan to see the display.
“It looked like the highlight was the fireworks, by the number of cars that were in the vicinity and around the exhibition grounds,” said March.
The fireworks were terrific, March said, and he thinks people really enjoyed the show.
When the city hosted a pre-Canada Day event for the first time last year, the recurring comment from the public was a desire to have fireworks.
“Clearly a lot of people came for the fireworks,” said March.
At the end of the show, an appreciative crowd cheered, while those who remained in their vehicles honked their horns approvingly.
The biggest risk for cancelling the fireworks would have been strong winds rather than rain. It would have been up to fire Chief Dale Feser to make the decision to cancel, based on information from the contractor for the fireworks and the listed provisions on the permit for the show.
But March said Feser didn’t express any concerns with the event going ahead, since the winds were not strong enough.
The cabaret, which featured the band Men Without Shame, was also well attended. Attendance started off slowly, March said, but it picked up after the fireworks ended, and people enjoyed the band.
March said he didn’t have a number for how many attended the different events associated with Celebrate the True North. A debriefing meeting was scheduled to happen on Monday.
He also noted that a lot of people dedicated a lot of time to ensure the event would be a success.
It will be up to city council to determine whether Estevan continues to host an event before Canada Day each year.
